Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Buste du Prince Imperial No. 2 (avec veston et pochette)
Lot Closed
December 15, 01:29 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
French
1827 - 1875
Buste du Prince Imperial No. 2 (avec veston et pochette)
signed and dated: 1865
bronze, mounted on a green marble veneered black marble clock
signed and dated: B. CARPEAUX / AUX TUILERIES 1865, stamped with the: PROPRIETÉ CARPEAUX eagle cachet, and titled: S. A. / LE PRINCE / IMPERIAL
bronze: 22cm., 8⅝in.
clock: 21.5cm., 8½in.
By family tradition gifted by Emperor Napoleon III (1808-1873) and the Empress Eugénie (1826-1920) to the station master at Chiselhurst, Kent, in thanks for his service to the imperial family, after 1871;
by family descent to the present owners, England
by family descent to the present owners, England
Carpeaux's Prince Impérial is one of the sculptor's greatest portraits and a defining image of Second Empire France. In 1865, the Emperor Napoleon III (1808-1873) and his wife the Empress Eugénie de Montijo (1856-1879) commissioned Carpeaux privately to sculpt a portrait of their only son, Prince Louis-Eugène-Napoléon (1856-1879), then aged about eight years. Carpeaux accepted the commission having been refused the opportunity to execute a portrait of the sitter's mother, the Empress Eugénie, in 1864.
Between the April and June of 1865 Carpeaux worked on a bust portrait of the prince, together with a full figure portrait of him standing with his favourite dog, Néro. The reason for the dual commission was that the Empress wanted a bust portrait whilst the Emperor requested a full figure representation. Carpeaux had a temporary studio constructed in the Orangerie of the Jardin des Tuileries so that he could have easy access to his model. Carpeaux knew the Prince Impérial personally since he had given the boy drawing and modelling lessons the previous year, 1864. However, the sculptor also had another child model since he wished to pay particular attention to the pose and costume in the standing group. The full figure statue marks an innovation from previous royal portraits, in representing the sitter as an upper class child with his favourite pet. Carpeaux wrote: 'my statue of the Prince Imperial will be a fine symbol of the modern era for the future; I am putting all my skill and life into it; it will be a step on the ladder to fame.'
The present model differs from the more famous bare breasted (and therefore classicising) model of which the prime version is at Compiègne (inv. no. MMPO 1628). In presenting the Prince clothed, the present bust recalls the full figure model.
Poletti and Richarme note that the present model (22cm) was cast by Carpeaux's atelier between 1865 and 1869. The present bust, which is stamped with the Propriété Carpeaux eagle cachet is one such cast.
RELATED LITERATURE
M. Poletti and A. Richarme, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux sculpteur. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre édité, Paris, 2003, pp. 112-113, no. BU 11
Between the April and June of 1865 Carpeaux worked on a bust portrait of the prince, together with a full figure portrait of him standing with his favourite dog, Néro. The reason for the dual commission was that the Empress wanted a bust portrait whilst the Emperor requested a full figure representation. Carpeaux had a temporary studio constructed in the Orangerie of the Jardin des Tuileries so that he could have easy access to his model. Carpeaux knew the Prince Impérial personally since he had given the boy drawing and modelling lessons the previous year, 1864. However, the sculptor also had another child model since he wished to pay particular attention to the pose and costume in the standing group. The full figure statue marks an innovation from previous royal portraits, in representing the sitter as an upper class child with his favourite pet. Carpeaux wrote: 'my statue of the Prince Imperial will be a fine symbol of the modern era for the future; I am putting all my skill and life into it; it will be a step on the ladder to fame.'
The present model differs from the more famous bare breasted (and therefore classicising) model of which the prime version is at Compiègne (inv. no. MMPO 1628). In presenting the Prince clothed, the present bust recalls the full figure model.
Poletti and Richarme note that the present model (22cm) was cast by Carpeaux's atelier between 1865 and 1869. The present bust, which is stamped with the Propriété Carpeaux eagle cachet is one such cast.
RELATED LITERATURE
M. Poletti and A. Richarme, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux sculpteur. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre édité, Paris, 2003, pp. 112-113, no. BU 11
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